


Rest And A Warm Body

by VolarFinch



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Molly traveled with Caleb instead of Nott, Caleb Doesn't Know How To Take Care Of Himself, Caleb Is Sick, Campaign 2, Cuddling, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fractured Ankle, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Magic, Molly and Caleb are Trying Their Best, Nightmares, PTSD, Potion of Sleep, Pre–Campaign, Sick Fic, Storms, Team Mom Mollymauk, Traveling Companions, critical role - Freeform, widomauk, with varying results
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-24
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2019-07-16 08:11:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16082042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VolarFinch/pseuds/VolarFinch
Summary: Caleb was limping.The human was trying his best to hide it, but he was most certainly struggling. His face was flushed and his breathing irregular, wincing every time his left foot hit the ground. His face was drenched in sweat, even though they’d only been on the road for an hour or so and the path hadn’t gone more than a few feet up at any given time. Molly watched him curiously, as he had been for a few minutes now, wondering if Caleb was going to say anything about his injury or remain quiet. Molly absentmindedly played with the hilt of one of his swords, eyes very obviously on Caleb.“You know I can––I can see you staring, Molly,” Caleb grunted out, face scrunching up as he stepped on a tree branch. “You are not being subtle.”“Oh, I’m aware,” Molly replied. “I was just wondering how long you were going to pretend you were doing okay. You’re really doing a great job with it––have you considered becoming an actor? You clearly have the talent for it.”“Ha ha,” Caleb muttered, choking down what sounded suspiciously like a cough. “I’m fine.”





	Rest And A Warm Body

**Author's Note:**

> Some context!! This is an AU where Mollymauk traveled with Caleb before meeting the others of the Might Nein. I haven't really thought about how this would affect the world as a whole, but I just wanted to write some Widomauk without being caught up entirely yet. 
> 
> I'm only on ep 10 so!!! no spoilers pls!!!!

Caleb was limping.

The human was trying his best to hide it, but he was most certainly struggling. His face was flushed and his breathing irregular, wincing every time his left foot hit the ground. His face was drenched in sweat, even though they’d only been on the road for an hour or so and the path hadn’t gone more than a few feet up at any given time. Molly watched him curiously, as he had been for a few minutes now, wondering if Caleb was going to say anything about his injury or remain quiet. Molly absentmindedly played with the hilt of one of his swords, eyes very obviously on Caleb.

“You know I can––I can see you staring, Molly,” Caleb grunted out, face scrunching up as he stepped on a tree branch. “You are not being subtle.”

“Oh, I’m aware,” Molly replied. “I was just wondering how long you were going to pretend you were doing okay. You’re really doing a great job with it––have you considered becoming an actor? You clearly have the talent for it.”

“Ha ha,” Caleb muttered, choking down what sounded suspiciously like a cough. “I’m _fine_.”

“Yes, I can clearly see that. You’re doing a great job at showing just how fine you are.”

“Shut it.”

Molly put his hands up and shrugged losely. “I’m just saying. You’re the one that looks like you’re about to keel over, pal.”

Caleb didn’t reply, keeping his eyes on the road ahead of him. His blue eyes, usually piercing and attentive, were fogged over and cloudy. His gaze seemed distant and pained, eyes shutting tightly with each wince of pain. His hands were clenched tightly at his side, his knuckles white. He looked determined to walk off the pain, but clearly was getting nowhere.

Molly sighed, scratching the base of his neck. “That’s it,” he said, “I’m having an intervention. You’re clearly in too much pain to continue and it’s ridiculous to watch you even try to feign normalcy. We’re resting and I’m giving you a healing potion.”

Caleb didn’t stop. “We do not  _have_ a healing potion,” he argued.

Molly dug into his bag, pulling out the potion of sleep he’d just managed to snatch when they’d last left civilization. The healing potion was still hidden in his bag along with a few other miscellaneous ones he’d managed to grab without anyone looking when they'd last been in civilization. The healing potion was for when one of them was at death’s door, not Caleb being awful at taking care of himself.

Molly held the bottle between his fingers and rose an eyebrow.

Caleb stared at tiefling for a moment, having finally stopped walking just long enough to gawk at the potion. “ _Where_ did you get that?” he asked. “Actually, I do not want to know. Give it here and we can keep going.”

“We don’t necessarily have anywhere to be, y’know,” Molly pointed out, handing over the bottle. He wandered close to Caleb, purposefully putting his arm at the man’s back as Caleb practically chugged the bottle. “We could take it easy for a day or two.”

Caleb finished the bottle, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. He eyed Molly and the arm around his back, trying to shrug the tiefling off.

The two continued for a few steps, Molly keeping a watchful eye on how Caleb started to slow down. The human blinked hard, stumbling and grabbing his head as the potion kicked in.

“What… the _fuck_ did you give me?” he mumbled, the words half-slurred.

Molly was right next to Caleb as the redhead’s eyes fluttered shut, the human falling right into the tiefling’s waiting arms. Molly adjusted Caleb’s weight, tucking the empty potion bottle back into his bag before hefting the human up bridal style.

“What does this guy eat?” he asked himself, noting how light Caleb was. He looked heavier under all of those layers. Whatever weight the human did have, Molly was almost sure most of it were his books. “What _isn’t_ he eating is the better question.”

Molly started off into the woods right off of the path, ducking and navigating amongst the plant life and trees. Caleb’s head was tucked into Molly’s chest, his breathing still rough and short. Caleb’s skin felt hot against Molly’s own; the wizard was definitely sick. Molly shook his head to himself, grumbling under his breath how humans didn’t know how to take care of themselves.

It took a good fifteen minutes of searching, but Molly eventually found a small stone cave of sorts––it looked like a large boulder that had been carved out over the years and dug further down by some sort of spell. It certainly wasn’t natural, but Molly didn’t give it too much attention as he went inside and carefully propped Caleb up against one of the walls. Caleb’s head cocked to the side, a small, groaned exhale leaving his lips as he shuddered. Molly put his forehead on Caleb’s, tisking to himself at the obvious fever. Molly carefully took off the human’s jacket, laying it across the floor and carefully setting Caleb down on top of it. He wrapped a few of Caleb’s books in the human’s scarf, using them as a makeshift pillow.

Caleb was shaking slightly, hands twitching and breath ragged. The sleep potion was of a stronger solution––Caleb would have woken up already if it were a normal one––but Molly had a feeling Caleb wasn’t going to wake up just because the sleep potion wore off. He needed this rest more than he (and Molly) fully realized.

“Okay, let’s see if we can do this right,” Molly muttered to himself. Cautiously, he rolled up Caleb’s pants leg to glance at what was causing his limp. He sucked in a sharp breath, wincing slightly at the angle the foot was at. “That… doesn't look too great.”

Caleb’s foot most likely wasn’t broken, which was great news, but he _definitely_ should not have been walking on it. It was twisted at an odd angle and was swollen purple—Molly was wondering how Caleb even got his shoes on. Molly removed Caleb’s shoe and put Caleb’s foot at an incline using the rest of his books.

He had been getting better at his first aid while traveling with Caleb over the past few months, but neither of them had ever really gotten sick before. He felt out of his element as he searched both of their bags for anything that could help––he pulled out their canteens of water, half-full; some random herbs Caleb had needed for a spell; crumpled parchment; and a spare shirt Caleb apparently was adamantly ignoring at the bottom of his bag. He found a few more books that he skimmed, looking for anything dealing with healing or even diseases, only to find nothing that would help him. The closest he got was with a chapter on medicinal teas of which he was pretty sure he had none of the herbs needed to make any of said teas.

Molly held the bridge of his nose, huffing out a breath. Outside, the sky let out a growl of thunder.

“C’mon, Mollymauk,” he muttered to himself. He knew how to make a splint for Caleb’s ankle, so he would start there. That much he could manage. “He probably just needs some sleep. A day of rest never killed anybody.”

The tiefling made his way outside, grabbing a few fallen branches and whatever vague herbs he could identify. Above head, the once clear sky from a few hours ago had begun to darkened with thunderous storm clouds. It was going to pour from the looks of it and Molly didn't want to be caught in the typhoon when that happened. He grabbed the array of sticks and branches he’d collected and made his way back to the temporary shelter.

Inside, he grabbed the flattest pieces of wood he could and, begrudgingly using one of his swords to smooth it out into a split. Using the rope he had, he applied the splint as best as he could, struggling with getting the rope tied on right. Caleb’s face contorted during the effort, looking to be so in pain to the point where Molly was convinced the redhead would wake up. Still, Caleb remained out-cold, his head lulling to the side. There was still a grimace on his face.

A roar of thunder caught Molly’s attention and he swerved to find a downpour of rain waiting for him outside. The rain sloped down the opposite incline of the rock, luckily avoiding the cave’s mouth for now.

“Guess we’re camping here for now,” he muttered. He glanced around at their miscellaneous supplies, trying to figure out what he should do now. A fire, he reasoned, would be a good place to start.

In his opinion, it took way too short of time to create the fire. Arranging the gravel of the cave around to form a pit, he dropped the rest of the branches into it and, using the right angle of his swords, managed to ignite a spark that grasped one of the branches and began to form a fire. He spent a few minutes blowing on the flame to help it grow, but it all seemed to blur past him. As much as a part of him hated to admit it, he couldn’t stop stressing over Caleb.

Molly wandered over to Caleb again after making the fire, crouching down and checking the other’s temperature. _Still high,_ he thought. Maybe he really should have just given Caleb the health potion.

 _He’s not dying_ , Molly told himself adamantly. _He’s sick, for Christ’s sake._ Whoever Christ was.

“He’ll be fine,” he thought out-loud. Silently, he added, _He has to be._

Molly contemplated the thought of Caleb dying, just briefly, before shaking his head free of the thoughts and getting up to clean up the mess he made. He couldn’t just stand around and think about what could happen––he couldn’t do much more for Caleb now besides wait and he needed _something_ to do.

Molly started with the books, stacking them in a pile before further separating them by genre because what did he have to lose. After that, he put the canteens by Caleb because if he knew anything about being sick, it was that you needed to stay hydrated. He folded the spare shirt Caleb apparently was never going to mention and put it on top of the books. He put the herbs in a small pile and double-checked to make sure all of their containers were secure. He tried to flatten out the parchment, but there wasn’t much he could do besides place them underneath the stacked books and hope for the best (though, let’s be honest––he wasn’t hoping for much in the first place).

With that done, Molly was left with absolutely nothing to do but sit around and wait and ignore his growing worry.

He took to pacing.

Molly had always been a pacer. He wasn’t sure where he picked it up, but he did it when he was worried. He couldn’t stand the thought of sitting still when something was so out of his hands––sure, life would find its own course and all, but that did nothing when something actually got to the tiefling. He tried not to worry and be as lackadaisical as possible, but that temperament was growing more and more difficult to maintain Caleb’s presence.

With Caleb on his mind, Molly continued to pace.

He wasn’t sure how long he had paced for––Caleb would know, he always knew things like that––but it was almost sure it hadn’t been long because the rain was still coming down in sheets and Caleb still wasn’t remotely close to being awake. Mid-pace, Molly rushed for one of his spare shirts and tore a piece off, wetting it in the rain outside, before applying the cloth to Caleb’s forehead. The cold seemed to relax Caleb somewhat, which calmed Molly, even if only a bit.

Eventually, Molly somehow paced himself into exhaustion. He sat next to Caleb, checking the dampness of the cloth, before taking in his surroundings again. Outside, the storm had been raging for hours and didn’t seem to be letting up. Thunder and lightning streaked the sky as if the gods themselves were igniting fury onto the Material Plane, bright bursts of light and electricity crackling overhead. The wind had changed directions a few times, causing Molly to slowly retreat both Caleb and their belongings deeper into the cave so as to avoid being wet. Throughout it all, Caleb slept.

Molly propped his chin on his hand, eyes threatening to close as the day dragged on. The lull of the rain and thunder was starting to become periodic to the tiefling––it became more of a lullaby than a threat. However, his drifting state was broken as Caleb’s voice became noticeable against the scream of the wind.

“Caleb?”

The human writhed on the floor, hands clenching and twitching as his face contorted. For a brief moment of panic, Molly thought that the pain had somehow become _worse,_ and he scrambled to grab the healing potion. The potion was in his hands when he finally made out the other’s words.

“Nonono, get away, get away!”

Oh. It was a nightmare.

Molly slinked back to his previous spot, sighing as he watched Caleb. He grabbed one of Caleb’s clammy hands, rubbing his thumb over the human’s and quietly shushing him.

“It’s okay,” he murmured. “You’re okay. I’m here.”

Caleb didn’t get nightmares often; when he did, it was rough for the both of them. Molly had yet to sleep through one of Caleb’s nightmares, usually on the account that Caleb ended up screaming and waking up in a panic that Molly tried his best to calm. Even after all these months of traveling and near-death experiences (and there were quite a few of those), Caleb had yet to open up about the source of the nightmares. At first, Molly had assumed it was the result of some close-calls with death––who could blame Caleb is that were the case? However, over time, the nightmares began to get more and more specific. Instead of it being a blur and incoherent scenarios, Caleb would mutter about specific people and wake up more terrified than anything Molly had ever witnessed. Whenever Molly asked, Caleb would just go quiet and distant and say, in a quiet and broken voice, “Not now, Mollymauk.”

Molly tried not to bother him about them. The best he could do was help Caleb through the nightmares the best he could. Sometimes it worked out alright, sometimes it didn’t.

Caleb rocketed up from his spot on the floor, sweating and eyes wild. Molly stilled, watching as Caleb’s gaze turned to him, his distant blue eyes sweeping over the tiefling once, twice, and even three times. Caleb’s face was pale and he was struggling to take in enough air. Molly held his hands up to show Caleb he was no threat.

“Hey, hey, hey, it’s okay,” Molly said softly. “Caleb, you see me? It’s Molly. Mollymauk. It’s just me.”

Caleb glanced over him again. “M––Molly?”

“Yeah. It’s me, Caleb. Just me.”

“Where are we? Where is he? What's––what is happening?”

 _He’s barely lucid,_ Molly realized. It was strange to see Caleb look so vulnerable and scared. The wizard tried his best to remain as stoic as he could, even if that exterior had slowly been cracked over the course of the past few months.

“We’re in a cave,” Molly answered calmly. “You’re sick and you need rest. You’re okay now. Nothing’s going to happen to you––I’m here.”

“But––what if––”

“It’s okay,” Molly repeated. “You’re sick and you hurt yourself earlier. Do you remember what happened to your ankle?”

Caleb glanced down, trying to feel out the answer. His knuckles were white and Molly could see his nails digging into his skin. “I––I tripped on a root while doing a perimeter check,” Caleb answered, voice shaking. “I––I did not want to bother you so I did not mention it.” His gaze turned back to Molly. “Where are we, Molly? Where is _he_?”

Molly didn’t know what to say for a moment. “You can tell me if you hurt yourself,” he said instead. “And we’re in a cave, remember? You’ve been sleeping all day. You’re sick, Caleb. Lay back down and rest, it’s okay. _You_ are okay.”

“I… I…” Caleb struggled with his words for a moment. “You will not leave, right?”

 _Gods, he really must be delirious,_ Molly thought.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he said. “I promise.”

Caleb took in a few more breaths, his breathing evening out, and he glanced down at himself. His gaze lingered on the splint, but barely a second later his eyes were back on Molly.

“Can––can––”

“Yeah? What is it, Caleb?”

“Can––can I sleep with you?”

Oh. That was not what he was expecting at all.

“Uh… yeah,” Molly replied. He scooted closer to Caleb, helping the human lean against the wall and keeping his leg propped up until he was finally shoulder-to-shoulder with the human. Caleb leaned his head against Molly, who put an arm around Caleb and brought him closer. At the contact, Caleb seemed to finally relax somewhat and closed his eyes, quickly fading back to sleep. Whatever his nightmare had been about, it seemed to have left him for now.

Molly let out a sigh, tucking his hair out of his face as he glanced down at Caleb. He traced the human’s features from the slight angle of his nose to his eyelashes. He took in the fading redness of Caleb’s cheeks and how he seemed to finally be breaking his fever. He lowered his head, putting his forehead’s to Caleb, and sighed in relief at the obvious temperature difference from earlier.

 _He really did just need sleep,_ he thought as his own exhaustion hit him. It seemed all the stress he’d been trying to ignore had finally caught up with him.   _I should take watch more often._ He stifled a yawn. _I’ll give Caleb the healing potion in the morning. I can swindle another one. Probably._

With Caleb finally in the clear for the rest of the night, Molly found himself drifting off, his head resting on top of Caleb’s as sleep took hold. For once, the two slept through the night.


End file.
